Main tectonic features of the Little Qinling Gold Belt (Central China)

We discuss main tectonic features of the Little Qinling gold belt in Central China, located along the northern border of the eastern Qinling E-W tectonic zone, which hosts hydrothermal lode gold deposits. The distribution of deposits and the strike of ore bodies are controlled by the Dayueping-Jinluoban anticlinorium and the related faults, namely large ductile-shear faults on its flanks striking parallel to the uplift axis and some large faults in the north and south. Mineralization is associated with smaller-scale mylonite zones of brittle-ductile deformation. The Dayueping-Jinluoban dome went through several stages of tectonic evolution (compression → folding → doming → strike-slip faulting → extensional faulting → reshearing) accompanied by regional deformation, metamorphism, migmatizition and mineralization.